Wednesday, June 17, 2015

Roswell Slides: It's All Over but the Accountability

At this point it doesn't look like there is much left to be learned about the child mummy depicted in the so-called Roswell Slides other than perhaps who knew it and when. Even so, many have convincingly argued that regardless of whether or not those in Adam Dew's inner circle knew the specific identification of the mummy, it is beyond conception that the image should have ever been suspected of depicting an extraterrestrial, much less for such dubious reasons as were so heartily served up. The saga and its piece meal trickle of suppositions and unconfirmed claims indeed stretches one's capacity for giving benefit of the doubt.

The Roswell Slides Research Group (RSRG) quickly put the long touted absurdities to rest when they deciphered the infamous placard within a couple days following the May 5 beWITNESS event. The placard indicated the mummy was a two year old boy and involved in the saga was an S.L. Palmer Jr. Existing doubt then increased of the sincerity of Dew's group, consisting of Tom Carey, Don Schmitt and Anthony Bragalia, due to their ongoing assertions the placard simply could not be read, as well as the fact they literally had years to try to do what it took other researchers just hours to accomplish.

Further doubt was cast when Frank Warren of 'The UFO Chronicles' reported Tom Carey and Adam Dew denied Warren access to images of the alleged slides, purposes of which were to attempt to decipher the placard, during the days leading up to beWITNESS. Carey and Dew reportedly opted not to allow Warren opportunities to decipher the placard, even though images were previously provided for analysis to David Rudiak, who recommended in vain that Warren be consulted. Warren would later be among the many researchers who independently confirmed the accuracy of the analysis of the placard as conducted by the RSRG.

More aspects of the mummy saga quickly fell into place, but beWITNESS promoter Jaime Maussan rejected the data at every turn. Don Schmitt published an apology for his participation in the event, but abruptly retracted it and continued promoting the story of the slides at events such as a MUFON conference in Pittsburgh. Tom Carey similarly rejected the mounting and conclusive evidence of the origin of the mummy, and he and partner Schmitt were enabled to continue spreading their unsupported story at such venues as Jimmy Church's Fade to Black, where they were largely interpreted to have obscured facts and evaded relevant issues. Maussan offered a 5,000 USD cash bounty amid the nonsense for more photos of the mummy in question, which the floundering researchers continued to promote as an alien in spite of no proof whatsoever to support arriving at such an extreme conclusion.

Jorge Peredo seems to have been the first to locate an independent photo of the mummy when he did so about June 9. The image found below was reportedly obtained by Peredo from Picasa, a photo hosting website, and taken in approximately 1957 at a museum. One of the two placards specifically mentions the involvement of S.L. Palmer, directly linking it to the image published by Dew and deciphered by the RSRG.

Soon afterward, on June 12, researcher Shepherd Johnson obtained copies of numerous documents, including a photo of the mummy, from the National Park Service (NPS) via the Freedom of Information Act. The documents also contained an accounting of history of the mummy and its specific relation to S.L. Palmer Jr., as was first indicated in the placard deciphered from the images of the alleged Roswell Slides.
Those following the saga were not surprised when Maussan once again rejected the evidence presented. He argued the images looked different in appearance while all but completely disregarding the supporting data supplied by the NPS and contained on the placards.

Credit: Shepherd Johnson (Obtained via FOIA request to the National Park Service [NPS])

Anthony Bragalia issued an apology - to the mummy - shortly following the deciphering of the placard. Soon afterward he went to laying the blame of the entire obfuscation of data surrounding the alleged slides at the feet of Adam Dew. Bragalia used the comments section of Kevin Randle's blog to argue his minimal responsibility in the matter while leveling charges against Dew of intentionally misleading him and circulating doctored images.

Some voiced objections to Bragalia's actions, viewing them as attempts to shirk accountability, as he was the most vocal and adamant of his fellow slides promoters throughout the saga. It was not well received in light of the facts that for months Bragalia passionately insisted he be believed that the slides and much of the related circumstances were vetted, and that due diligence had been carried out, yet it is now abundantly clear that obviously could not possibly have been the case. Moreover, after having repeatedly reported that he viewed and examined images himself, and after having demanded that we accept his extraordinary interpretations of the story, a great deal of which continues to remain unsubstantiated, Bragalia proclaimed he was duped. He asserted that the very parties he promoted and demanded we trust were who successfully deceived him. To add insult to injury, Bragalia provided no more evidence for his current assertions about Dew and associates than he did his former, he apparently just desired to be unconditionally believed.

Some, including this writer, argued that Bragalia appeared unable to understand the mistakes he had made in failing to accurately differentiate between fact and supposition. It was also argued that he failed to understand why people object. It could be added that he is highly unlikely to find sympathy, even if he is now correct, among those who warned him all along that he was jumping to premature and irrational conclusions, yet he met those warnings with extremely questionable tactics and digging his heels in even deeper.

There are indeed a number of questions yet to be conclusively answered about whether the advocates of the Roswell Slides could have possibly been as incompetent and gullible as they appeared, including Richard Dolan, who participated in beWITNESS and incredibly vouched for the integrity of Maussan. It is arguably very doubtful that the saga could have progressed as far as it did without blatant collusion. It is extremely difficult to accept anyone could view those images, with or without documents from the NPS, and not consider the most likely explanation to be a mummy in a museum setting, or, at the least, realize there is no reason whatsoever to assume an alien.

It is possible that some of the group, such as Bragalia, may have been so gullible they became the victims of a scam themselves. Even if so, they are highly unlikely to find a sympathetic ear among a UFO community that warned them all along to suspend judgment pending verifiable evidence, and they chose to reject those warnings with aggressive and self-righteous contempt. If the rest of us can be expected to figure out how to avoid jumping to unfounded and, in all honesty, idiotic conclusions, so can they.

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